SUMMIT MEETING NOTES

February 9, 2006

 Location: College Hill Recreation Center

 ACTION ITEMS

The key action items as agreed to in this meeting are as follows:

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

 ABSENT:

College Hill Library
Mercy Hospital
Mt. Airy Foundation

AGENDA

• Welcome and Introductions

• Agenda Review & Modification

• Opening Prayer

• Special Announcements

• Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

• Housing Development in College Hill

• Aiken High School

• Aiken High School

• Gateway Project

• College Hill Public Relations

• CPOP

• Community Events

• Summit Goals & Focus for 2006

• General Announcements

DISCUSSION: 

1.   Introduction of New Members

Chappie introduced Kevin Ward, the new Pastor/Administrator of Christ’s Community in College Hill (CCCH).    

The group welcomed Barbara Gordon, principal of College Hill Fundamental Academy.

 2.   Special Announcements

§         Ron shared that Valerie was ill with the flu, and unable to attend.  Ron took meeting notes.

§         Officer Herb Noble explained what is happening with neighborhood officers as a result of the reorganization of the Cincinnati Police force.  In summary, additional officers will be working with him to learn to interface with the community, as he has been modeling in College Hill.

§         Jim Bodner announce that a camera will be reinstalled on the building that houses Shakers in the near future.

§         Ken Lyon is forming two committees to follow-up from the presentation he provided last week to help the community have a more appealing and coordinated web ‘look’ from outside the community.    

3.   Review of Action Items From January Meeting – by Ron Cowgill

A.  Frank McGuire gave his comments to Ron on the Summit summary for the website.   Ron is revising.

B.  Summit meeting locations for 2006 have been decided, except for November.

C.  No one was prepared at this meeting to discuss Summit focus and goals for 2006, so it was postponed to the March Summit meeting.

 4.   Report on Neighborhood Summit @ Cintas Center – by Phyllis Schoenberger.

It was a very good Summit.   The focus changed this year because the neighborhood police officers took charge of the event.  Some of the presentations included:

Al Lloyd, Superintendent of Cincinnati Public Library, spoke on grant writing.

Jim Tarbel of City Council and responsible for Arts & Culture in the city, shared his focus on public art.

Paul Washington spoke at a workshop on commercial development.

Overall, participants considered it a good use of time and will attend next year.

 5.   College Hill Housing Team – by Ron Cowgill & Phyllis Schoenberger

The Cedar Ave resident survey is continuing.    There is a developing sense that the team should focus on a particular block – to be determined – for the initial effort.    There is also a lot of interest in nurturing neighborhood/resident associations, and the Forum QOL is very active in working to unite people in the area.   The Code Enforcement Response Team of the city will also be invited to become more active as the work on Cedar gets rolling.

 6.   Aiken High School – by Joan Pack-Rowe

A number of new programs are underway at Aiken focused on improving life skills and success for teens.  These include:

o       A lunchtime mentoring program has been established.   Volunteer adults are asked for a one year commitment to come and have lunch with students.

o       A program for “Raising Great Kids” for pregnant students.  70 teen moms are now in Aiken.   The goal is to reduce the drop-out rate for these young mothers (and fathers).    Community organizers are needed to help support the program.   Would like to have adults in one-on-one relationships with these teens.

o       Rick Schroer is partnering with Aiken to do River Treks, 5 days and nights canoeing down the Little Miami River with 5-10 teens.   The goal is to do team building and leadership building.   This will be a reward opportunity for students who do well in school.

Donna is retiring as Principal of Aiken University, and a search process has started to find her replacement.

Helen Habbert has joined Cincinnati Public School College Hill area as a third level contractor for CPS, focused on educational programs.  CPS is in the process of a four-phase Master Plan.  College Hill Academy is in phase 3, Aiken is in phase 4.   Every new public school facility will become a “Community Learning Center”.   $50 million has been invested in sites and facilities, which will include community facilities.  Facilitators will engage the community to ask “How would you the community like to interact?”

Year 1 – Vision

Year 2 – Work with Community in defining the learning objectives for the community and the school,

Year 3 – Construction Plan

Helen expects to re-engage Pleasant Hill in this process as they have just completed their building program and opening for their new building.  Questions to be answered are:

What are the partnerships that the school and community will create?

Each school will have a resource person associated with it to work on helping to develop the progress needed.  

Helen is assigned to the College Hill Community.

7.   CHCURC Update

Þ    Annual Meeting – Attendance was good, with 135 at dinner and 175 at the meeting itself.   The McAuley music group shared their music at the dinner.  The speaker was Doug Bolden, publisher of the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Þ    Lynden Park Commons – This project continues to make progress.   Sale of land options has been signed.   City will procure Shulers and Eastern Star while Neyer will acquire Kroger property.  The closing for Shulers is Friday, Feb 10.  Demolition should start late spring to early summer.  Construction should start in October or November.

Þ    Gateway Project – They met with the selected design group, Architects Plus.  Proposal for project scope is in progress.  Two community focus groups are planned for input to the process.

Þ    Façade Improvement – provided matching grant for any building that can be seen from Hamilton Ave right-of-way.   A workshop was held and 11 property owners came to make applications.

 8.   CPOP

The CPOP group meets twice a month.  They work with the police to solve various crime & safety related issues in the community.   They have identified that owners of multifamily rentals are somewhat isolated and disconnected from the community, so they are seeking to meet with these owners and listen to their grievances as well as address any issues with their tenants.   Officer Nobles handed out the monthly crime report.

One issue that is under discussion is the call capacity of 911.   Some community residents are complaining that when they do call, they get recorded messages and are put on hold.

 9.   Community Events

·         A Community Potluck Dinner will be held again this year, on Friday, Feb 24, from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm, at College Hill Presbyterian Church in Fellowship Hall.  Phyllis is looking for help to organize it, and to provide entertainment.   Attendees are also being asked to bring something for the students at Aiken (from the list of needs previously published).   

·         The Great American Cleanup event will be Saturday, April 22, 9 am to 12 noon.   Participants will meet at the vacant lot at Hamilton and Llanfair.   A flyer was handed out at the meeting, more flyers will be distributed as the date gets closer.  

·         McAuley High School will have a spaghetti dinner on Sunday (date??) from 4 -7 pm.   A vocal ensemble will be performing.

·         CPS had a school choice fair.  

·         CHCURC passed around a sign up sheet for the annual dinner.

·         The College Hill Cookbook is still available for sale for $15 at College Hill Coffee Co.   Forum is using this as one of their fund raising activities (the full printing has been paid for). 

 10. Other Announcements

o       Funds are coming in very slowly to cover the costs of the camera system.   CHCURC will be contacting those who pledged to this to secure funding.   The current situation is that there are not enough funds to pay the next quarterly bill.

Next Summit Meeting:
March 9, 2006 @ 8:00 am at the 8:00 am at McAuley High School.

Summarized by:
Ron Cowgill
May 8, 2006

Abbreviation Key: